Fiddle as Rome Burns

The gondoliers in Venice are eating breakfast as the city floods, and as I go through the pictures on the Time.com photo essay site, I'm always struck by the resiliency of people to just keep keeping on. I think journalism is not just about highlighting the plight of others, I think it's also a way to rile people up, to get them off their bottoms and take action, but really, with the immediacy and visual and aural stimulation of the instant news, I feel more numb than horrified, scared or even motivated to do anything. Living on an island, I've always had that dream that the oceans are so high that we live on the tops of sky scrapers, and the majority of the buildings are under the water. We have to work our way up in order to get to see sunlight, or risk living in the murky grey, green and black of the ocean. So when my husband told me that Venice was flooded last night, I thought of people hanging out on the tops of buildings, jumping off of ledges to get on the boats. Instead, there are pictures full of tourists, walking in the water, some with rubber boots, some without, but still going about their business. After all, they're in Venice! We humans are an interesting lot. We won't ponder the environmental implications - or the power of signs as much as build taller buildings, stronger retaining walls, and higher docks.

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Professional Practice Dissertation Pre-Proposal, Part 1 of 4

My dissertation proposal as a culture-based education (CBE) version of Chopped All-Stars Please indulge my need for metaphors and analogies to make sense of my world. This is Part 1 of 4 blog posts to clarify my thinking on my proposed dissertation topic. How will this study work? Gather strong chefs, leaders and innovators in their own right and challenge them to create synergistic culinary masterpieces in the CBE Project, a professional development program. change chef to teacher; change culinary masterpieces to culture-based education-infused practices and curriculum ) The parameters: time (Kamehameha Hawaiʻi 4-week course with deadlines for teachers' own action research and learning portfolio to follow) key ingredients ( CBE practices , moenahā framework, makawalu , and the National Writing Project program model) the course (teachers' own content area and current curriculum) The question: How doe...

Dissertation Proposal 4 of 4: Timeline

Timeline Summer 12 - pre-proposal, lit reviews, submission for B-credit, negotiations for a course (place, time) Fall 12 - build the course using the village, build in indigenous, developmental evaluation and sustainability Spring 13 - submit IRB approvals, pa ʻa the logic model, recruit teacher leaders Summer 13 - Alana Summer Institute Fall 13 - teacher action research and gathering of data Spring 14 - analyze data, write Summer 14 - write, collaborate, present This is a "in an ideal world" timeline that does not take into account the village, the permissions from higher ups, the ability to exist on a non-budget, the recruitment of teachers willing to participate in this work with me, the full time job duties that I already have AND the fact that Iʻm supposed to be in 6 or 9 credits worth of my own courses in the Summer of 13 on Oahu when I want to serve my Big Island teachers. Any suggestions?

Dissertation 3 of 4: Research Methods

"From the vantage point of the colonized, a position from which I write, and choose to privilege, the term 'research' is inextricably linked to European imperialism and colonialism. The word itself, 'research,' is probably one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous world's vocabulary." ( Tuhiwai Smith , 1999) Paula Moya, a Chicana researcher says, "identities are fundamental to the process of all knowledge production" ( p. 102 ). Like Tuhiwai Smith, I must also embrace my identity as a colonized researcher. Moya goes on to say that education, "should not be about merely inculcating status quo values," but to reject the status quo as a way to inculcate a "transformative multicultural education" that will educate all learners for democracy and social justice (p. 109). The Alana Project, starting with this professional development course, which becomes my dissertation action research, sees transformative multicu...

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